Word Of Wisdom Ministries
By Cheryl Arnold

The answer is very simple. Have you been granted repentance? Do you hate sin and namely your own sin? Have you looked to Jesus for forgiveness?
You are saved forever if you answered yes to each question. These are the questions the word of God asks so you will know if you are saved or not. And we can know. God wants you to have assurance. He doesn’t play games.

Are you saved? Do you hate sin? If you do, then Jesus paid the price for that sin you hate, and all sin. He will declare you not guilty if you come to Him and repent of that sin you hate. He will forgive you. He will claim you as His own forever. He will lead you in paths of righteousness now.

Calvanism teaches that a person can’t repent until they are saved. This is false teaching. It leads to a false gospel. Here is the true gospel and is what the Bible teaches in its entirety:

The whole counsel of God teaches that man in his once born state, loves darkness because his deeds are evil. In other words, he loves sin. This is why he sins.

Calvanism says that a person can’t hate sin until God saves them and then they can repent of sin. This is false.

It is easily proved. A person who is unsaved is once born, and he sins. He knows it is sin. Calvanism teaches that he doesn’t even really know it is sin until God opens the heart and saves him…only then can he repent. This is false.

Romans tells us that every man created has the law of right and wrong written on the heart. He knows what is sin and what is not sin. God gave him that knowledge. Now repentance is only given to a man who comes to the place where he hears the gospel and hates his sin. Once he does, he can long for forgiveness and deliverance from sin. This is salvation.

I could belabor the point and get into all the intricacies, but listen to Jesus: “Preach repentance for the remission of sins”…and many more just like this.

This is the order: repent in order to be forgiven (saved). So salvation does not come first. Repentance comes first.
Calvanism teaches that man is totally depraved and unable to know he is a sinner or turn from sin. The whole Bible teaches us the opposite.
The once born man knows he is a sinner. He is not so depraved that he can’t have that knowledge. God gave it to him when he was created, so he could repent!

He has the choice to remain in the sin he loves or to choose to hate sin. God tells us this. He admonished us to choose the good. Hate the evil. In other words, choose to hate sin. Choose to love right. Jesus will save if you do.

There are types all through the Bible. God showed me the most exquisite one when I was arguing with someone who demanded that repentance was not necessary for salvation. This person was believing that Jesus just saves who He will and then that person can repent. This is a false gospel, I tried to show.

Out of nowhere the Spirit of God said to me , look: “John the Baptist was the type for repentance. He had to pave the way for Jesus to enter the scene. In the same way, repentance has to take place in a heart before Jesus can enter it. It is never the other way around.

So the truth of salvation is that a heart chooses to love sin or to hate sin. If he loves sin and keeps loving sin, eventhough he knows it is sin, he will not be able to repent. Repentance only comes to one who chooses to hate sin.
Once a person decides he hates sin, and the gospel brings this message that he can be forgiven of the sin he has loved, he can choose to repent of sin and be forgiven.
He is not totally depraved and unable to choose good or evil. This is seen nowhere in the Bible nor it is seen anywhere in life.

Anyone who has not chosen to hate sin has chosen to not repent and not be saved. It is a choice that everyone is free to make.
If we will choose to hate sin, God will grant the repentance that leads to salvation. Once we receive salvation, then repentance continues on our walk while we are being sanctified… that is, purified so that our heart and actions grow continually cleaner. The walk purifies.
Salvation justifies. The journey purifies as we walk out and work out our own salvation.

Jesus said no man can come to the Father unless the Spirit draws him. This means that God will only draw a person to Himself when He sees a heart beginning to hate sin and desire to be free of it.
This is the gospel of the Bible.
Calvanism teaches that God opens a heart and saves it. Then that heart repents and turns away completely from sin. If they have any error in their lives then they cannot be saved. This is false.

God removes sin bit by bit on the walk with Him. He begins cleaning up a life after they have been saved. If that heart decides to stay in sin willfully and ongoingly, then they can be in danger of the sin unto death. God will not permit a true believer to continually, and for a long period of time, choose and stay in sin that he knows is sin. One of two things is true: There never was salvation, or that person is walking a thin line and a dangerous one unless they turn and begin purifying their own hands and minds.

Repent for the remission of sins. Jesus is very clear.
Bless His holy name.

This life on earth is a choosing ground. We will choose good or evil our wholes lives and it is our choice.

God tells us to choose the good. He pleads with us through His word to learn to hate the evil and to love the good. Believers are faced with this same choice. The only difference between a believer and non believer is that the believer has the power of the Holy Spirit to choose forever the good, until the evil is actually hated, and has no appeal at all to the heart that God has changed into His own image.

Darkness lurks in the darkness and the deeds of the flesh hide there. The light has overcome the darkness and while the darkness can still hide and lurk doing its dark work, there is coming a day where the light will expose it.
God is so kind to warn us of this coming day so that none will be ashamed. But the sad truth is that very few choose light. Why? Because they love evil. Why do they love evil? Jesus says in John 3 that it is because their deeds are evil and this is what they prefer. They are lovers of evil.
When God uses a very sharp example of a very stern truth, we know it. A dog returns to its vomit and a pig to its slop. These are Jesus’ words, don’t miss that. Why? A dog loves vomit. A pig loves slop. They don’t love the good. They prefer the evil.

The danger here is this: There is nothing in the Bible that says a true believer will continually struggle with the love of sin. Not one thing. Instead it says that Jesus’ sheep hear His voice and follow only Him. They will not follow another voice. A tree is known by its fruit.
Can a true believer dabble in evil knowingly choosing it?

I’m sorry. The Bible says no. A true believer loves the good and hates the evil.

Are you increasingly loving good and hating evil? I hope so. If not, a day is coming and can be the next minute, we don’t know, when your love of evil and every evil deed and thought will be exposed. And you will live eternally in your choice. Jesus warns that many will think they are children of God when He will tell them to go away. He doesn’t even know them. Please hear this. This is a clarion call to those who think they believe but still love sin and evil. Choose the good!

Satan lies and calls evil good. How many people who have heard the gospel and even believe they are saved, have chosen to call evil good and stay in it? Many.

Love the good. It is your choice. Be transformed by The Holy Spirit. Call to the one true God and He will help you. Jesus is ready to forgive and transform.

Here is a warning: If you are one who loves evil, you are not a victim. You just love evil. You hate the good. It’s that simple. If you are content with that then go your way.
A person who longs to be clean will be clean. A person who loves filth will remain filthy. Nothing can be done for them. A person must choose the good AND hate the evil.

Meditate on that.

No! Or let me say, God can do anything but we had better cling to the word.

In Acts, we see that handkerchiefs from Paul’s body were brought back to the sick and SPECIAL MIRACLES were wrought by Paul to heal and cast out demons. The key words are: SPECIAL MIRACLES, and BY PAUL.

“Special” here, is meant to convey that this was isolated. It was a special event for a very singular purpose and not a general, doctrinal truth at all.

Can God do this again? Yes. He can do anything. Can we as believers just do the same thing because Paul did it? Absolutely not.
The power of healing and the casting out of demons, is in Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit within a believer. It is not in a garment of any kind.

We are warned in the Bible not to try to re-produce a work previously done by God just because God did it that way before. That is called strange fire and two men were killed instantly by God for doing that. God rarely works the same way twice. This is to distinguish Himself from man so we can exalt Him, and know that He is sovereign.

We are also warned to examine and test the spirits to make sure they are from God. The test is never to see if the thing worked. It might work and still be of the devil because he also can perform signs and wonders. He is a supernatural being, remember.
If an angel of light comes to you and presents something to you that is against the word then reject it. In Ezekiel, we see that many women in Israel were superstitious and engaged in things like this and kept doing it because it worked. They even said, we will keep doing it because when we do we are blessed.

God tells us though that He allows them to become even more steeped in their superstitions by making the things work. Be careful! God is not mocked. He absolutely will give a corrupt heart that goes after other gods (superstions are other gods) more and more reason to get more and more corrupt.

He lets idol worshipers have their idols and cling more and more to them. He gives them over to a debased mind. Evidently He knows there is no possibility of that person following Him. They love evil instead, so He lets them have the evil they love so much.

A good result does not mean that the thing that is done, is right. Satan can do marvelous things.

The only way to tell is to receive with a ready spirit then go see what the word of God has said about it.

In this case, The word says that these were SPECIAL MIRACLES, from Paul’s hand. Period.

Praying over garments to go do the work of God is against scripture. Don’t do it or follow it unless God has most definitely ordered it. It is strange fire if He hasn’t.

God says in Isaiah, woe to you who are covered with any covering that isn’t my Spirit.

Preach the gospel. This is power unto salvation… and healing and all manner of miracles. Preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

and we know that He answers prayers. Here is a thought to ponder and remember when you have serious needs…or any need.

If you have been walking with the Lord for a long time then you have a reservoir of times He answered prayer and in amazing ways. He answers the longing of the heart as a matter of fact even before we utter the need to Him.

A time will come when you have a very pressing and important need. When this happens, we can go back and sift through the memories of all the times He did answer the prayer. And hindsight teaches us that if He didn’t it was only because He was doing something else and it was always better.

This knowledge gives me great rest. I do have what to me right now seems like a very big prayer. I am uttering it in my heart to Him even now. It is a terrific need. Will He answer? He will. This makes me rest right this minute.

If he doesn’t supernaturally bring me word from Himself then I know He is doing something bigger than what I can know right now. Just rest. He is teaching me. I do long for the answer not only today but right now. I wait Lord. How blessed I’d be to see it right now.

We shall see. I am 100 percent sure however that if I don’t see it. He has a better answer.

What true rest. Thank You Lord.

I’m on the beautiful road. If you asked me how I got here I couldn’t tell you. Well I could tell you in terms that another person would understand, but still, I’m not telling you. All I can do is describe what I know this beautiful road to be.

It’s straight if you are on it. But that is only if you are on it, because very few find it. I can’t coax you to find it. I wish I could but it’s not permitted. If I coax you to find it, then you have not found it… this narrow road. Jesus tells us about it. It is a beautiful road and it leads to a beautiful place. It’s a holy road. It’s a road that I am on, and I can tell you mechanically how I did get here, but spiritually, I don’t know why God has allowed me to be here.
But I’m here. Something in me, I don’t know what, has yielded to God.

Jesus has also said about this beautiful road, that few find it.

When I entered this road, there had to be a decision in my heart, that maybe I was aware of and maybe I wasn’t, which required me to pick up my cross and carry it on my back as well.

I haven’t chosen my crucifixion. And in the beginning, it was the crucifying of my own flesh. But it quickly turned into another kind of crucifixion…one for my brother.

I will have to say that this one is the more difficult one and the one that increases the difficulty to be crucified. Not because I would rather not be, God knows I am gladly. Instead it is the more difficult one, increasingly difficult one, because very few find the way.

On the beautiful road, you have few companions if you find it, and the gate is very narrow. And if few go through it…this also is my crucifixion.

Now, now now, I have fellowship with Christ…when I am crucified for those I love.

This isn’t an atoning crucifixion in any way of course. But the crucifixion that is mine and yours if you submit to it, is this: “Greater love has none than this: that a man would lay his life down for his friend…”

This is Christ’s agony on the cross, not that He was crucified, not that he suffered… he could bear that. In the same way my crucifixion that he said I must go through for my brothers is not my agony, but rather, it’s my joy. My agony is the same as his agony.

So if you’ll be crucified, you will find the beautiful road. The beautiful road is a holy Road.

When I look around on this beautiful road, it’s who I don’t see on it that is my agony. You and I long to see our brother on it, but we can’t do anything to put them on it.

The beautiful road is a choice of the heart, it is not a forced thing.

The beautiful thing about the beautiful road is that it is not a forced thing, but is a choice. Paul said that it was the love of Christ that constrained Him. Here is the beauty. It is the love for God that places one on the beautiful road. You don’t decide I will love God and get on that road. Not in my mind.

Rather, a believer at some point finds that his heart loves God with all that it is, and suddenly, he finds himself on a road he had no idea he was going to be on…he is just there. There is no other entry.

A believer then, conversely, has to choose to not be on this road that he knows is beautiful. This is his agony. And it is Jesus’ agony.

Here is a mystery: Jesus could not have been crucified on Friday. There is no “Good Friday” but is a tradition of man that does not look closely enough at the word of God.

We can prove that it was Thursday on the calendar we use today by several things but I’ll use one way to prove it. Jesus told us that one sign would be given to the wicked generation that He is the Messiah. He said here it is: Just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, so must the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

Had He been crucified on what we would call Friday that week, Jesus would not have been in the earth three days and three nights. It has to be the day we call Thursday.

Keep in mind two things as we go forward: 1-God’s days begin with evening, then morning. This actually falls on two separate days on our calendar but on one day on God’s calendar.

2 God doesn’t name the days of the week. Rather, He numbers them. For example, the month Jesus was crucified was the first month of the new year on God’s calendar. He was crucified on the fourteenth day of the first month. We do see some names of months used throughout scripture but mostly God numbers them and I think this could be to avoid any name change.
We know Jesus was raised on the morning after the Sabaath, or the first day of the week. On our calendar that is what we call Sunday.

We know that many times it is repeated in the gospels that Jesus was raised on the third day. That is intentional. God is showing us something if we look hard.

We also know that the men on the road to Emmaus who met Jesus unknowingly, after He was raised early that morning, Mark says, they said today is the third day since He was crucified.

But remember, the third night comes first. So the third day is after the third night. That is backwards to us but we are going by God’s order. Genesis tells us that it is evening then morning, the first day. And so it is here with the crucifixion.

So this means that He was raised early on the third day, Sunday. Let’s count backwards from there and we land on Thursday. Sunday is day three, so the night before was night three and so on. Just count and we can see He was crucified three full days and nights before Sunday morning.
Sunday was day three, the night before that was night three. Saturday was day two and the night before that was night two. Friday morning was day one and the night before that was night one, Thursday.
Now He was crucified beginning around the third hour which likely was 9 in the morning, the sky went dark at the 6th hour, likely noon, the He died at the ninth hour, likely around 3 o clock. But that was still Thursday because remember God’s days are evening and morning, one day.

The amazing thing is that the sky went dark for three hours while He was on the cross and that was to fulfill the law. The lamb had to be crucified at sundown. Not evening but sundown. This is how He could share the Passover meal with the disciples on the 14th day at evening and still be the Passover Lamb on the same 14th day but in the daytime, and it was sundown. God is amazing.
Anytime you see something in the word that makes you pause please investigate it. God is always accurate and right. Wonderful mysteries are there to be discovered if you’ll search. He reveals secrets to His beloved.
Bless His name!

Revelation begins with 7 letters to 7 churches. These letters are meant to be seen on a few levels. One is that it is spoken to the individual believer. I’ll examine that level here in this post.
In essence, Jesus tells the believers in the church at Ephesus, that He is very pleased that they stand strong in Jesus, and do not tolerate false doctrine. This is necessary and highly needed and commendable.
The one thing He says they have done is that they have forgotten their first love. He then says repent from that and return to your first love. That’s the only instruction they get.
So what does He mean. I believe He showed me today and shed some new light on this and Id love to share it.

I started thinking of my first love. Then immediately I knew what He meant. My first love was when Jesus saved me. He pulled me from the pit. He pulled me out of darkness and into His marvelous light. I was lost.

My heart then, has to be that fresh and that eager towards the lost sheep. Some lost sheep are easy to be pitiful towards. Some are not. It’s the are nots He is referencing.

I think it is very easy to get in a place where we have walked so long with Him and have enjoyed the fellowship of walking with a clean heart and in pure fellowship, that we can lose a tenderness for the ones who are now just where we once were…lost. No matter how different the state of being lost can look in people, one thing is sure…lost is lost.
God has said that I have nothing that wasn’t given to me by Him. He didn’t save me because I was good or better or best. He saved me because He delighted in me. I was in a pit. I was just as lost and in some cases just as contemptible as the worst of the lost sheep. Yet, He saved me. I remember that love.
Jesus said you love Me because I loved you first. I love Jesus because He loves me. His love made me love Him.
To forget our first love then , I believe, is referring to an attitude of dismissal, impatience, anger and frustration towards those who have not seen what I’ve seen…yet.

So what are we to do to repent and do the first things, remembering our first love? I know! Have mercy on the lost. Turn dismissal and frustration into prayer for those lost who could be lost sheep.
Whether they are lost or lost but soon to be found sheep, we don’t know and it is not our business to know. But our business is to remember the pit, from which we were dragged, and maintain that new, humble, eager heart to go out then and seek the lost! Tell them Who you know! Have mercy and pray and hope against all things. Why?

It’s because Jesus saves. Yes He does. Jesus saves and makes all things new.
Let’s repent then of the tendencies to think we are better in any way than the least of these. Then, return to and stay in, the lowly and humble heart when you were freshly saved and pulled from darkness into His marvelous light.

He does all things well.

can be seen as a pattern for the believer’s walk, and for those believers who assume that the goodness of God erases transgressions not repented of.

This was Joab’s mistake. We know Joab was one of David’s mighty men. We know he was his nephew as a matter of fact. We know he was a fierce general and loved God. We know that Joab was elected of God and used by God to accomplish big amazing things for God’s people, Israel, and for God’s purposes.

But in the end we see some curious things. He did not finish well. In spite of all the glorious good and masterful courage and godly deeds and heart, he did not finish well.

Joab loved David and served him selflessly. He was enraged at David’s adultery and murder… ashamed of David’s conniving. This endears us to Joab because this was also God’s heart concerning these things.

But Joab had killed unnecessarily 3 people. We never see repentance for those murders. We do see extreme repentance for David’s adultery and murder. And while David did reap exactly what he sowed times 1000, he finished well and very, very well.
So we have to say that the dividing factor here is repentance. This stays in line with all God has shown us about His justice. He forgives where there is repentance.
Now keep in mind that there are two forms of repentance. 1-Repentance unto salvation and 2- Repentance after salvation of individual sins committed. We are discussing the latter. Both men were saved so the repentance that saves isn’t in question here. This is a different repentance that happens every time we decide to trespass even though we know better.

Now we also have to consider that both David and Joab suffer greatly for their sins. Joab paid with his life. Solomon was instructed by David to kill Joab for his crimes. David’s entire life and household were plagued with the very sins he committed, poured back onto his own head. This is very serious.

Each one knew better and this is the difference. Had each one committed these sins before they had knowledge of God, and before they had a relationship with God, things very well could have been different. Why? It has to be so. God is just and His law demands it. The difference is that grace is applied to them even though they did reap what they sowed. Grace is applied by giving eternal life to them, in spite of their sins while in the body of believers.

This is a good picture and a stern warning for believers today. Once you have the knowledge of God, be very careful not to indulge in sins that would’ve been done while in unbelief. They are treated differently. Never can a saved life be at stake or eternal salvation lost but rewards can be lost and even life.
Believer, if you know Jesus as your Savior….walk in Him. Turn not to the right nor to the left but follow Him very closely. God is holy. Don’t let your heart forget that God is holy and so must you be!

The mercies of God cover us and spare us from many toils and snares, but watch your life and let Him keep it now if you are in Christ. Don’t take Him for granted. This is a stern warning to us today.

Jesus said and Peter reminds us, as God is holy, so you be holy. Amen Lord.

Seems to be a picture of the lukewarm believer who still loves the world and the flesh.

She is in the group called to be removed from the wrath that is coming to Sodom and Gomorrah, but she doesn’t go. She is killed instead. We don’t know how far this type goes and we don’t know what happened to her spirit. God doesn’t tell us so we must not guess.

However, it is entirely possible that she really is a picture of the lukewarm believer who won’t be raptured when the bride is and who will stay behind and be beheaded to enter Heaven.

For sure, we can’t rule this out so we can entertain it to see if it jibes with the rest of the Bible and with the doctrine of salvation and sanctification and end day events.

Interesting thing is that it fits perfectly.